Angel Unawares
by autumnrose2010
Summary: Pregnant as the result of having been abused by her stepfather, Robin thinks that suicide is the only answer. She's stopped by a boy who mysteriously appears inside her house. But why does he look so familiar?
1. Robin

Robin's heart pounded as she stood poised over the bathtub with a razor in her hand. It wasn't so much that she was afraid it would hurt; however painful it might be, she was sure it would be over with quickly. Nor was it so much that she feared the afterlife; she'd never really given it much thought, but whatever it would be for her, it had to be better than what her life was like now.

She feared disappointing her mother, letting her down. She wasn't so much worried about Wren; her older sister had a life of her own in California, and she knew that _he _would certainly never shed a tear over her.

Her mind made up, she turned on the tap and held her wrist out, preparing to slash it deeply with the razor.

"No! Don't do it!"

Startled, she turned to see a tall, slender boy watching her. He had light brown hair, freckles, and soft hazel eyes. Something about him seemed vaguely familiar.

"How did you get in here?" she asked when she could speak again.

"Please don't hurt yourself, Robin." He sidestepped her question. "It's not worth it."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "How do you know my name?"

He held out his hand to her, ignoring her question once again. "Give me that thing."

"It's sharp," she told him. "It'll cut you."

"I don't think so." For the first time, he gave a slight smile. Too startled to protest, Robin meekly handed the razor to him. It disappeared as soon as he touched it, and she gasped in surprise.

"How did you do that?"

This time his smile was much wider. "Don't you remember me, Robin?"

She shook her head.

"I'm Danny!"

For a moment she just stared uncomprehendingly, and then it hit her like a bolt of lightning. _Danny!_

He laughed at the expression on her face. "You _do _remember me!"

"Why, yes, of _course _I do...but how..."

"I came back to keep you from doing a very foolish thing. You're only sixteen, Robin. You have your whole life before you, and you were just about to throw it all away."

Her eyes filled with tears. "You don't know."

"Whatever it is, it definitely isn't worth what you were about to do."

Robin stared at her feet. "I'm pregnant, Danny...by _him." _Briefly she glanced up to see that, rather than being shocked, he seemed to be simply waiting for her to continue.

"It started not too long after he married my Mom," she went on. "The way he looked at me always made me feel uncomfortable. I told Mom about it, but she said I was just imagining things. Then one day I was alone in the house with him when he came up behind me and grabbed me and forced me into the closet. He put his hand over my mouth so I couldn't scream, and then he made me take my clothes off and...do it with him."

Danny didn't say anything, but his eyes were soft with compassion.

"Afterwards he told me that if I ever told anyone, he'd kill me. I was too embarrassed and ashamed to say anything, anyway. He did it to me a bunch of times after that, and then one month my period didn't come. I bought one of those home pregnancy tests and took it, and it came back positive." She looked at him forlornly. "So you see, there's nothing else I can do!"

"Of course there is," Danny replied. "You have to tell someone right away!" He took her hand and led her to the police station. Although it was several miles from her house, it seemed to take no time at all, and she didn't get the least bit tired.

* * *

><p>"I hope you're happy!" Robin's mother, Helen, glared at her daughter. "He's dead now, and it's all your fault!"<p>

"No, it isn't," Robin replied. "I told the police what he did to me because it was the right thing to do, but I didn't make him hang himself in jail." Somehow she knew that it simply wouldn't do to tell her mother about Danny, at least not at this point.

"You lied about him to the police, that's what you did!" Helen's eyes blazed with fury as she confronted her daughter. "You had him arrested because you had a crush on him and was jealous that it was me he was with instead of you, and just look what happened! If it weren't for you, he'd still be alive!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Tears streamed down Robin's face. "I didn't want to do it with him, but he forced me!"

"You little whore!" Helen hissed. "Because of you, an innocent man is dead! I want you out of my house, right now!"

Robin was shocked. "But where will I go?"

"You should have thought about that before you did what you did." Helen's voice was cold, uncaring.

Devastated, Robin began to pack her things. She decided that the only thing to do would be to hitchhike to California and try to find Wren. With a deep sigh, she opened the door and left her house for what she was sure would be the last time.

No sooner had she stepped onto the sidewalk than she became aware that someone had fallen into step beside her and looked up to see Danny. Angrily she turned away from him and began to walk faster.

"Hey." Lightly he touched her arm. It was the first time he'd touched her in three years, and it felt perfectly natural and human.

"My life's even more screwed up now, thanks to you!" She jerked her arm away in annoyance.

"Please listen to me, Robin. I can help. I know of a place you can go."

"I'm going to California to find Wren."

"You don't have to go all the way to California. I know of a place much closer that can help you."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What are you talking about?"

He reached for her hand. "Come on. I'll take you there."


	2. Our Father's House

"Welcome to Our Father's House. My name is Linda Curtis." The woman was about fifty, with perfectly coiffed brown hair and a heavily made up face. "The Lord placed a burden in our hearts to care for young women in your situation. We'll provide you with a safe place to stay, nutritious meals, and medical care, and then after your baby's born, we'll find loving adoptive parents for it. Unless, of course, you and your boyfriend are planning to get married."

Taken aback, Robin gasped. She hadn't considered putting her baby up for adoption; she hadn't really considered what to do about her pregnancy at all.

"Is that an option?" asked Linda.

"Danny's not my boyfriend," Robin told her. "It was my step dad who got me pregnant. He...forced me to have sex with him."

"I'm so very sorry that happened to you, dear." Linda seemed neither shocked nor saddened. "But you have to remember that, regardless of how it was conceived, your baby is innocent, and God loves him or her just as much as He loves you."

"I hadn't really thought about that," Robin replied. "After my step dad hung himself in prison, my Mom blamed me for it and kicked me out of the house. I was on my way to California to try to find my sister when I met up with Danny and he brought me here."

"The Lord must have sent him to guide your steps," said Linda. "Here at Our Father's House, you'll be safe and well provided for, but we expect you to do your part as well."

Robin was confused.

"You'll be expected to commit your life to Christ, if you haven't already done so," Linda explained. "Church is every Sunday morning at ten, and Bible study is every Friday evening at seven. The only excuse for missing either is illness, documented by a physician."

Robin glanced doubtfully at Danny. "Maybe I should have hitch hiked to California to look for Wren, after all."

"If you'd done that, you would have been picked up by a psychotic serial killer who would have raped and murdered you," Danny replied. "Everything's going to be all right, Robin. Trust me."

"Will I ever see you again?" Suddenly she felt desperate not to lose him again.

"I'll come to you as soon as you need me again."

* * *

><p><em>Robin was in her room reading a Judy Blume novel when Wren burst in, crying hard. "There's been a terrible accident!" she sobbed. "Becker was driving drunk and smashed his car into a tree. They don't know whether or not he'll live, and Danny's d-dead!"<br>_

_It went through Robin like an electric shock. For a moment, she simply couldn't believe it. Why, Danny had been over only the previous weekend, talking and laughing and very much alive. Yet several days later, she stared at his pale, still face lying in his casket and was forced to admit that it was indeed true.  
><em>

_Wren sobbed copiously at the funeral, and for awhile afterwards, she seemed to completely withdraw from her friends and family, even her two besties, Jess and Darcia. Until a new boy, Gabriel DeMarnes, moved into town. It didn't happen right away, but gradually, over time, the old Wren returned._

_But what about Danny? Robin wanted to ask. How could her sister have so easily forgotten all about the boy who'd loved her?_

_One day Robin went to visit Danny's grave, taking with her one of the many sketches he'd drawn for her. Despite their four-year age difference, he'd never once treated her like the annoying younger sister who was always in the way. He'd always been very kind and patient instead, always treating her with respect. Then suddenly he was gone, and a chapter of Robin's life was over forever. Or so she'd thought._

* * *

><p>After Danny had left, Linda took Robin to her new sleeping quarters. The room was small but looked comfortable. The walls were painted a pale yellow, and several framed Bible verses in cross stitch adorned the wall. It contained two single beds with fluffy quilts. A blonde girl lay on one bed, reading the Bible. She looked up when the door opened.<p>

"Paisley, this is your new roommate, Robin," Linda told her. "Robin, this is Paisley."

"Hi!" Paisley smiled, revealing her braces.

"Hi," Robin replied shyly, setting her suitcase down on the empty bed.

"How old are you?" asked Paisley.

"Sixteen."

"I'm seventeen, but I'll be eighteen before my baby's born," Paisley replied. "I say 'my' baby, but really it belongs to the couple who are going to adopt it."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know them personally. They're clients of John and Linda's. They pay an adoption fee, and John and Linda match them with a birth mother."

"When I first found out I was pregnant, I was so scared," Paisley continued. "My boyfriend dumped me right away. I was planning to have an abortion, but Linda showed me this horrible video about what really happens during an abortion. It just made me sick! She also gave me tons of information on fetal development, and that made me realize that abortion was the taking of an innocent life, that my baby has at least as much of a right to live as I do."

"But how can you _do _that?" asked Robin. "How can you just give your baby to two complete strangers to raise?"

"A child needs _two _parents," Paisley said emphatically. "John and Linda carefully screen all their clients to make sure they're God-fearing, Bible-believing Christians, so I know my baby's going to a good home. Aren't you going to do the same thing?"

"I haven't even thought about what I want to do yet," Robin admitted.

"Well, you'd better decide soon!" Paisley exclaimed. "You don't want your baby to just languish in foster care for months and months."

Exhausted by the day's events, Robin fell asleep almost immediately that night.

* * *

><p>The Friday night Bible study was a new experience for Robin, as her family had never been particularly religious. It opened with a prayer led by Amber, one of the other pregnant girls staying at the home, and was followed by a passage from the Bible read by Nicole, another of the group.<p>

After the study was over, Linda had the girls go around in a circle and share 'what Jesus had done in their lives that week.' Most were stories of good health reports and family reconciliations. When her turn came, Robin had no idea what to say. "Um...I recently met up with a friend whom I thought I'd never see again," she finally said.

"Praise the Lord!" Linda exclaimed, and the other girls cheered.

* * *

><p>Robin was sitting in church one morning when it happened. First she felt a terrible cramp in her abdomen, worse than any menstrual cramps she'd ever felt, and then there was a sudden gush of warmth between her legs. She looked down at herself and gasped when she saw that she was bleeding, heavily.<p> 


	3. Forever In My Heart

"I'm so sorry, Robin," the emergency room physician told her. "We've managed to get your bleeding under control, but unfortunately, we weren't able to save your baby. The good news is that, with a few weeks' rest, you should expect a complete recovery."

Robin had very mixed feelings. On one hand, she was relieved that she wouldn't have to go through pregnancy and childbirth, as the thought of both terrified her; and on the other hand, she couldn't help but wonder what a baby from herself and her perverted stepfather would have been like. Would it have inherited its father's violent, unnatural urges? Or would it have been more like her? Now she'd never know.

"He's in heaven." She turned her head to see Danny sitting in a chair beside her bed. "He had a chromosomal abnormality that would have made his survival on earth impossible, so God in mercy took him now rather than later."

"So I would have had a son?"

Danny nodded. "You'll see him again someday, and when you do, he'll be perfectly healthy and whole."

Robin felt a mixture of relief and loss. "I wonder if this is how your parents felt after you...after what happened to you."

"They were devastated," he told her. "I wanted so badly to comfort them, to tell them I was fine, better than fine, but unfortunately, it wasn't possible."

"But why wasn't it possible? Why couldn't you have gone to them like you came to me?"

"I was still too new, too unaccustomed to my bearings. To have attempted to cross back over in the state I was in then would have been out of the question."

"But you can go to them now, can't you?"

Danny shook his head. "It doesn't work that way. I volunteered to come back for you because I saw that you needed me. They've all adjusted well and moved on with their lives. To reappear to them now would disrupt the new life they've built together."

"So do you mean you'll just abandon me when you decide I don't need you anymore?" Robin demanded shrilly.

"I swear to you, Robin, I'll be with you for as long as you need me."

"And what if I never stop needing you?"

"Get some rest now, Robin. You're tired."

She was released from the hospital the following day. Danny was with her. "Where am I gonna go now?" she asked. "I can't go back to Our Father's House because I'm not pregnant anymore, and I can't go back home because my Mom's still mad at me."

"I'm taking you to the Social Services Department," Danny replied. "They'll find a good foster home for you, I promise."

Robin's eyes went wide. "But I don't want to live with strangers!" A thought occurred to her. "Please, Danny, can't we just go back and live with your family? I always thought they were so nice, and I know they'd be happy to have you back."

Danny sighed. "I already explained the situation there," he said patiently.

"Then couldn't I just stay with you?" she asked.

He grew thoughtful. "Let me see what I can do."

* * *

><p>"It just hits you at the weirdest times," Molly said to her best friend, Bailey. "Yesterday, a new kid in school asked how many brothers and sisters I had, and without even thinking about it, I told him I had two big brothers. Then I remembered and said no, just one now. My other brother died."<p>

"You never really get used to it," Bailey replied. Her twin sister, Brittney, had been killed in a car crash almost two years earlier. She and Molly had met in a support group for teens who'd lost a close relative. "People are always asking me if I'm an only child, and I'm always forgetting and saying 'no' at first."

They'd reached the library, where Bailey wanted to search for the lyrics to Brittney's favorite song. She wanted to include them in a special memorial service she was putting together for the second year anniversary of Brittney's death and had had no luck searching for them on the internet.

"Well, I'll see you around," Molly told her friend as she turned to head back home.

"Yeah, bye." Bailey climbed the stairs and entered the library, where her eyes immediately went to the circle of computer monitors at which various people sat. The back of one head looked strangely familiar, and it took Bailey only a split second to realize why.

"Brittney!" For that split second, she forgot that she was in a library. Several heads, including the one that had so commanded her attention, turned in startled surprise.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry." Bailey's face was beet red as she stammered her apology. "It's just that...you reminded me of my sister."

"That's all right," the girl replied. "Is your sister missing?"

Bailey shook her head. "She's dead."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the girl replied. "It's hard to lose someone you love, I know. My name's Robin."

"I'm Bailey. My sister's actually the reason I'm here. I wanted to look up the lyrics to her favorite song. I didn't have any luck finding them on the internet. It's kind of an older song. That's probably why."

"What song is it?" asked Robin.

"'Forever In My Heart' by the Rosebuds."

"Hey, I've got all their CD's!" Robin began, then remembered. _"Had _all their CD's."

"What happened to them?"

"They're still back at my house with all my other stuff, but I can't go back there 'cause my Mom's still mad at me."

"That's terrible! Where will you go, then?"

Robin shrugged. "My friend was going to help me find a place. He told me to just wait here in the library, but he never came back for me."

"You can come stay with us, if you like," Bailey suddenly decided. "I'm sure my folks wouldn't mind if you stayed in Brittney's room."

"Are you sure that would be all right with them?"

"I don't see why not."

Robin felt tremendously relieved. Maybe she'd already found a place to stay, after all.


	4. Wren

Bailey's mother, Susan, was very surprised to see Robin but readily agreed to the proposal that she stay with them, temporarily, at least. "Great!" Bailey exclaimed. "It's almost like having a sister again!"

Her words made Robin think of Wren. _It's really been too long since I talked to her, _she told herself. _So much has happened, and I need to at least let her know I'm OK._

Robin liked her new room. It was painted light pink and had a bed with a matching frilly pink quilt and even a pink lampshade. It looked very feminine, and joy of joys, it boasted a computer. Robin logged onto her Facebook account right away and clicked on her sister's profile.

_I'm with a new family now, _she wrote. _I had to leave home because of Bruce. I met Bailey Anderson in the library. Her sister died, so her family has room for an extra person. Her Mom seems really nice. _She hesitated. Should she tell Wren that Danny was back? Somehow she felt it should be a secret; yet, on the other hand, perhaps Wren had the right to know. After all, Danny had been _her _boyfriend, not Robin's.

_It was Danny who helped me find a home with the Andersons, _she finally wrote. _He's been back for awhile now. He's helped me a lot. If it weren't for him, I don't know what would have happened to me._

Taking a deep breath, she pressed the 'send' button and hoped for the best. Susan called her to dinner then, and she met Bailey's father, Paul, for the first time. He was a nice-looking man with a full head of dark brown hair and mournful brown eyes. Robin wondered whether he ever really smiled. To her he seemed permanently sad. She felt terribly sorry for him.

On Monday she started school with Bailey. It was a different school from the one she'd attended when she'd lived with her mother and stepfather. She was glad, as it would have been terribly awkward to have had to explain everything that had happened to her.

Over the course of the week, Robin slowly began to feel as if life was finally back to normal again. Soon she was busy with classes, homework, and after-school activities. On Friday night she went to a movie with Bailey and her friend Dara, and on Saturday the three girls went roller skating together. Wren was waiting for her at home when they got back.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"What are _you _doing here?" asked Robin. Bailey just looked puzzled.

"Bailey, this is my sister, Wren," Robin said. "Wren, Bailey. What are you doing here, Wren?"

"I came to see him, of course. Where is he?"

"I'm right here." Suddenly Danny was there, dressed casually in t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, as always.

"Danny!" Wren lunged at him and tried to hug his neck.

"You shouldn't have come here, Wren," said Danny. "You belong in California, with Gabriel."

"But _you're _the one I love, Danny!" Wren wailed.

Danny shook his head. "What we had is over, Wren. I came back for Robin because she needs me. _You _don't."

"But I _do _need you!" Wren protested.

"No, you don't. You have Gabriel now."

"But I gave my virginity to you!"

"And I gave mine to you." At Danny's words, Robin felt as if I knife had been plunged into her heart. So Wren and Danny _had _slept together.

"Well, doesn't that mean anything at all to you?" asked Wren.

"It did at one time," Danny replied. "But it doesn't anymore. Go back to California, Wren. That's where you belong now."

Wren was crying now. Danny turned away from her and looked at Robin. He held his hand out to her, and she took it. They walked along together silently for awhile.

"It upset you to find out that Wren and I had sex, didn't it?" Danny asked quietly.

Robin nodded. "It just seems so unfair! She voluntarily gave hers out of love, but mine was stolen from me in a very cruel way!"

Danny shook his head. "You didn't give it voluntarily, so you still have it."

"Danny, can you still...you know..." She blushed furiously.

"Why do you want to know?" he asked sharply.

She shrugged. "I was just curious. That's all."

"I still have a body, don't I? So I can still do all the things a person with a body can do. Look, Robin, we were young, only seventeen, and we made a mistake. Don't make the same mistake I did, Robin. Wait until you're older, and you're sure it's the right time."

"What _are _you exactly, Danny? Are you a ghost?"

He laughed. "Ghosts don't have bodies, do they?"

"Well, what are you, then?"

He grinned. "What do you think I am?"

She frowned in concentration. "An angel?" she asked after awhile.

"So you've heard of us."

"Well, of course I have! Is that really what you are, Danny? An angel from heaven?"

"That's where we come from, yes."

"So after someone dies, they go to heaven and become an angel?"

"It depends on what kind of life they lived. Not everyone qualifies."

"Is heaven really as wonderful as I've always heard it is?"

"It's even better."

"And you left all that just for _me?" _Robin was astounded.

"Sometimes we miss human companionship."

"But why me?"

He laughed again. "Why _not _you?"


End file.
